Implementation of a New Numerical Tool to Simulate the Wake Rupture in Large-Scale Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines

CYNTHIA N. GÓMEZ ; SERGIO PREIDIKMAN; OMAR D. LÓPEZ MEJÍA; BRUNO A. ROCCIA

BUENOS AIRES

Congreso; IEEE ARGENCON 2016; 2016

IEEE AREGENTINA

With the objective of increasing knowledge regarding the behaviour of Large-Scale Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines (LSHAWTs) and provide a correct design for them, aerodynamic, aeroelastic and aeroservoelastic studies have become of interest in the last years. A new numerical method to simulate the wake rupture against the supporting tower is developed in this paper. This simulation scheme is implemented using an existing computational code and it represents an improvement in the process of detecting wake vortex segments passing through the supporting tower. The numerical tool is based on a modified version of the well-known unsteady vortex-lattice method. In order to validate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed wake rupture method, numerical results obtained in this work are compared with results obtained using a numerical scheme developed previously by other researchers. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of shape variations of the wake rupture as a function of the number of aerodynamic elements on both the blades and the tower is carried out. In order to analyse quantitatively the influence of aerodynamic discretization of the blade on the wake rupture model, the starting and ending times of the first rupture are computed. Finally, conclusions are drawn.